Klaus angered by government letter to ethnic Hungarians

Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek has angered President Vaclav Klaus with a letter on state policy regarding the country's sensitive post-war period. In the letter sent to Coexistencia (an association that promotes the rights of minorities) Mr Paroubek states that a gesture made by his government last summer towards ethnic Germans who opposed the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia was also for ethnic Hungarians.

A spokesman for Mr Klaus said the president has demanded an explanation why he was neither consulted nor informed about the letter and only found out about its existence from his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Solyom, who visited Prague on Thursday. Mr Paroubek says he felt no need to discuss it with the president because the gesture towards the Hungarian minority is part of a government resolution from last August.

Author: Dita Asiedu